During the period of 14–20.November 1991 thieves broke into Ekelands studio at Eidsvoll and stole 29 of his paintings. Having failed in its investigation to find the paintings, the police entered a shady deal with feared criminal Bjørn Arild Skjørsæther, hoping he would be able to find the paintings using methods the police were not permitted to. Skjørsæther, known as a member of the criminal gang
Tveita-gjengen in Oslo, was in February 1992 fetched from serving prison-time in
Oslo Prison, and offered a bounty of 300 000 kroner and false promises of better jail conditions if he could find and retrieve the stolen paintings. When Oslo Prison after 13 days discovered they had been fooled by the police, the mission was called off with no results to show for. The mission was passed on to another central figure in the criminal underworld of Oslo, Jan Kvalen, who in 1993 succeeded in retrieving all of the stolen paintings. ==References==